Spell Backlash

"Pfft."

Wang Yu's five fingers trembled slightly, and a wisp of white mist sprayed from his palm. It held together without dispersing, floating lightly in the air before him as though it weighed nothing at all.

Curious, he poked the white mist with a finger. It felt somewhat icy, but not unbearably so.

Only when he withdrew his finger and examined it did he notice a faint trace of frost lingering on the tip.

Meanwhile, the white mist gradually faded, disappearing completely after a few breaths.

Was this the power of the second layer of the Yin Water Art?

Wang Yu was deeply disappointed.

Once his mood had settled somewhat, he took a Gray Pouch from inside his robe, where he had kept it close to his body. It was the object belonging to the lord of Yellowstone City that he suspected was a Storage Bag.

The lord of Yellowstone City had ruled an entire city, yet after his death that day, apart from a damaged Magical Artifact Shield and an Invulnerable Gauntlet, not a single spirit stone had been found.

If this really was a Storage Bag, then without question, everything valuable had to be inside.

Now that his Dharma Power had "greatly increased," he certainly had to try again.

Wang Yu held the pouch in one hand, locked his divine sense onto its opening, and slowly channeled his Dharma Power into it through his fingers, carefully watching for any changes.

As threads of Dharma Power flowed inside, the previously motionless pouch began giving off wisps of an unidentified white glow.

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow and increased the flow of Dharma Power. A short while later, when less than half his Dharma Power remained, the tightly sealed opening slowly loosened a little.

Delighted, he poured all his remaining Dharma Power into it while taking the opportunity to probe through the opening with his divine sense. Inside, he saw a small pile of glittering spirit stones, two Green Boxes, and something resembling a book.

Before Wang Yu could get a clear look, the last trace of Dharma Power in his body ran out. The Storage Bag shuddered, and its opening abruptly contracted, sealing itself shut again.

His divine sense was instantly bounced back out before he could retrieve anything. Even his current Dharma Power was not enough to open this pouch?

Wang Yu sighed, set the Storage Bag aside, and sat cross-legged in meditation, slowly recovering the Dharma Power he had expended.

At noon, when he felt that his Dharma Power had mostly recovered, Wang Yu tried opening the Storage Bag again. Once more, he could only get the opening halfway open and could not actually retrieve anything inside.

With no other choice, he reluctantly put the Storage Bag away again. He would have to wait until he broke through to the third layer of the Yin Water Art before trying again.

By evening, Wang Yu had recovered his Dharma Power once more. He left the stone house, went to the open ground outside, and took out the Silver Folding Fan. Channeling Dharma Power into it, he slowly unfolded it.

The raised and recessed spirit inscriptions on the fan seemed to awaken, stirring restlessly as its surface gradually began to shine with a dazzling light.

This might work!

Wang Yu's eyes lit up. Gripping the handle with both hands, he swept the fan forcefully through the empty air before him. His Dharma Power abruptly surged outward as though yanked from his body.

"Whoosh!"

A hazy yellow gale roared out of the fan, instantly sending sand flying and stones tumbling within a radius of several yards. It lasted a full three breaths before slowly breaking apart and disappearing.

The Dharma Power of the second layer of the Yin Water Art could indeed activate this Profound Wind Fan. But the magical artifact consumed far too much Dharma Power. That single sweep had used up almost all of his reserves. It seemed he could only use it at critical moments.

Stroking the spirit inscriptions on the fan, he returned to the house in thought and took out both Introduction to Spells and the Red Beast Hide.

Now that he had reached the second layer of the Qi Refining Realm, he could finally begin learning parlor trick arts in earnest.

Sitting on the bed, Wang Yu first read through Introduction to Spells carefully once more. Only after setting it aside did he spread the Red Beast Hide in his hands and scan it with his divine sense.

Within the hide, a spell pattern composed of five scarlet spirit inscription symbols appeared clearly. Each was as red as fire. This was the parlor trick art recorded in the hide: Firefly.

With the aid of overclocking, he had already thoroughly comprehended all the spell's spirit inscription symbols some time ago. The next step was to meditate a spell mark into existence in his divine sense sea, then resonate with the Dharma Power in his body to cast the corresponding spell.

According to Introduction to Spells, even the simplest spell mark was not something an immortal cultivator in the Qi Refining Realm could easily meditate into existence. For beginners, failing dozens or even hundreds of times along the way was perfectly normal. Fortunately, the book also recorded several hand seals and a universal incantation for meditating spell marks into existence.

The book made it clear that this so-called meditation was merely the process of using hand seals and incantations to imagine a spell's spirit inscriptions into existence within the divine sense sea.

This process allowed almost no margin for error. An immortal cultivator had to keep making corrections with divine sense within their divine sense sea, and every "stroke" consumed a great deal of Mental Power, making it extremely difficult to form a spell mark correctly.

An unfinished spell mark could only withstand a limited number of corrections. Too many would cause it to collapse before completion, delivering a certain impact to the immortal cultivator's divine sense sea.

Fortunately, Firefly was merely an unranked parlor trick art. Even its spell backlash would be very mild, so there was little need to worry.

Naturally, Wang Yu was very curious about imagining something into existence inside his "head."

Introduction to Spells treated the matter lightly, as though every immortal cultivator could do it. But as a university student steeped in modern materialist theory, he remained somewhat skeptical.

After firmly committing the shapes and arrangement of the five scarlet spirit inscriptions to memory and familiarizing himself with the hand seals and incantation, Wang Yu began forming seals with both hands and chanting softly, attempting to visualize the spell's spirit inscriptions.

With his eyes closed, he appeared to be sitting motionless on the bed. Yet as the stumbling incantation reached his ears, he distinctly felt his Mental Power grow more active and easier to control.

Something miraculous happened!

A red point of light appeared out of nowhere in his divine sense sea. As time passed, it slowly stretched into a thin line of light, twisting and weaving bit by bit until it gradually traced the rough shape of a spirit inscription symbol, though it kept shifting and adjusting...

Even with Wang Yu giving it his utmost attention, imagining the spell pattern while splitting his focus between hand seals and chanting still left him scrambling, making mistakes from time to time.

Worse still, once the spirit inscription symbol began to take shape, his previously manageable Mental Power grew heavy, as though it had sunk into deep water. Every attempt to move it took tremendous effort, and the inscription he formed kept developing all manner of deviations, forcing him to correct it repeatedly.

As a result, the scarlet spirit inscription symbol was only two-thirds complete within his divine sense sea when it flashed and collapsed from too many alterations.

"Boom!"

Wang Yu felt as though his head had been struck by a heavy hammer. A sharp pain shot through him, forcing his eyes open. Clutching his head in both hands, he grimaced on the bed for a long while before finally recovering, his face pale.

Introduction to Spells had made failure to form a spell mark sound trivial, but this spell backlash was nothing like ordinary pain. It was an agony that seemed capable of branding itself into the depths of his mind. He truly did not want to endure it a second time anytime soon.

Moreover, the backlash had not only left his Mental Power somewhat disordered, but had also inexplicably depleted a portion of his Dharma Power.

After considering it for a moment, Wang Yu suddenly understood.

A spell mark did not truly come from nothing. It still required Dharma Power and was probably a product of Mental Power combined with Dharma Power. That fit his understanding of things.

After a long period of meditation and rest, his Mental Power stabilized again. He silently said, Overclock, then resumed forming hand seals and chanting.

His five senses began to sharpen, everything before his eyes slowed down, and his mind entered a strange state...

Under overclocked synchronization, Wang Yu felt as though he had become a high-precision machine. His consciousness was the blueprint, his Dharma Power the source of energy, and his Mental Power the raw material. Ultraprecise manufacturing began within his divine sense sea. Assisted by the hand seals and incantation, the process flowed as smoothly as though he had practiced it thousands of times, without the slightest hitch or error, let alone any need for adjustments or corrections.

A scarlet spirit inscription symbol rapidly took shape within his divine sense sea, as precise as a printed image and completely identical to the spell inscription on the hide.

But what was going on with this terrifying consumption of Mental Power? It was draining far more than ten times faster than before, pouring away like floodwater through an opened spillway.

This was bad!

Stop, quickly!

"Exit overclocking."

Wang Yu's expression changed in alarm. He immediately stopped forming hand seals, cut off his chanting, and instantly exited overclocked synchronization. The spirit inscription symbol in his mind, already more than halfway complete, flashed and collapsed again.

He suffered spell backlash once more, his face filled with shock and anger.

In those brief moments, more than half his Mental Power had vanished, leaving only about a third.

By the time Wang Yu had endured the pain of the backlash and resumed meditation and breathing exercises to recover his Mental Power, night had fallen.

Unwilling to give up, he entered overclocked synchronization mode again. He discovered that as long as he did not attempt to form a spell mark, his Mental Power remained perfectly normal. But when he cautiously tried forming one, the same thing happened.

His Mental Power drained away at the same terrifying rate, and the spell mark failed to form just as before.

After suffering another bout of torment from spell backlash, Wang Yu finally gave up completely.

Although he had not figured out what was happening or why overclocked synchronization produced such a strange result, he temporarily abandoned the idea of using the auxiliary system. He intended to form the spell mark the normal way, patiently and honestly.

Seven days later, Wang Yu sat cross-legged on the bed, gazing at the complete spell mark floating within his divine sense sea, his heart full of bitterness.

Over this period, he had suffered spell backlash thirty or forty times in all. Through all that torment, he had finally come to understand that his aptitude for spellcasting was perfectly ordinary. He was no prodigy.

But whatever the case, he could finally cast the first spell of his life.

"Firefly."

Wang Yu murmured the word, raised one finger before him, and connected to the spell mark within his divine sense sea with a thought.

The moment his thought touched the spell mark, it began flickering faintly in resonance.

With a pfft.

A wisp of red flame appeared on his fingertip, no more than three inches high.